Panasonic Avionics teams up with Eutelsat to deliver XTS in-flight connectivity across Europe and the Middle East

Panasonic Avionics Corporation, a market leader in in-flight entertainment and connectivity, has signed a multi-year agreement for Ku-band capacity on two multi-beam payloads on the EUTELSAT 10B satellite, due to be launched in 2022.

This contract with Eutelsat Communications will enable Panasonic to provide multiple gigahertz of new extreme throughput (XTS[1]) Ku-band connectivity to airlines and their passengers flying over a wide area across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Panasonic will continue to optimize its worldwide network and add more state-of-the-art satellite capacity in high-density regions to ensure it can deliver very high performance everywhere its customers fly. This satellite also provides high performance over lower density area such as Africa.

Ken Sain, Chief Executive Officer of Panasonic Avionics Corporation, said: “Panasonic Avionics is continuing to invest in its Ku-band connectivity network. This contract with a long-standing partner such as Eutelsat, with whom we already work with globally, illustrates our strategy to constantly expand our worldwide network with additional capacity, to create value for our airline customers and satisfy the needs of their passengers. We have collaborated closely with Eutelsat on this satellite design and we are very excited to see these efforts come to fruition.”

Philippe Oliva, Eutelsat’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: "We are delighted that Panasonic Avionics has selected us once again to further extend its resources. This capacity commitment on our upcoming EUTELSAT 10B satellite reflects the quality of coverage at our 10° East location as well as our focus on developing competitive solutions to meet growing inflight connectivity needs worldwide."

EUTELSAT 10B will be the second XTS satellite to join Panasonic’s connectivity network which has been developed to meet the growing connectivity demands of airlines and their passengers and is designed to place capacity where it’s most needed across the globe to meet demand.